We have been having problems for months and were headed toward separation if not divorce.

I’d try to turn it on, and it would resist. After fighting with me, it would leak. Its single
handle would loosen and wobble. I hauled out a Phillips screwdriver and an Allen wrench so often to
tighten it that I started keeping the tools in a nearby drawer.

My wife wanted to get rid of the faucet, which has served us mostly well for the past 10 years.
She had her eye on a new, slim trophy faucet — a tall, handsome model, to be sure.

But, despite the recent problems between the faucet and us, I wasn’t ready to give up on our
Moen. So I tackled this problem with the same approach I use for most plumbing projects, which I
hate: I ignored it for a few weeks, hoping the faucet would heal itself.

That never works, of course, so my next step was to take the faucet apart to reveal things I had
never seen before. I hauled out my cellphone, took a picture of it and quickly put it back
together. Then I went to the nearest hardware store, stood in the plumbing fixtures aisle and
scratched my head until help arrived.

I needed a new cartridge, the helpful clerk said. The cartridge is a metal, plastic and rubber
cylinder about the size of two AA batteries that regulates water flow and mixes the hot and cold
water in a single- handle faucet.

The new cartridge would cost about $12. And the special tool recommended for removing the old
cartridge would cost about $15. (I had already tried pulling the old cartridge without the tool,
and I pulled so hard that I feared breaking something.)

A new faucet would cost $80 to $300, so $27 for repairs sounded really good. The big question
was whether the tool and part would stop the leak.

I had the faucet apart again in a few minutes. Then I spent 15 minutes or so trying to figure
out how to use the special cartridge-pulling tool, which came with minimal and not entirely clear
directions.

Once I figured it out, the tool worked great, and I had the cartridge out in a minute.
Remarkably, the new cartridge slid in as if greased. I’m pretty sure that its rubbery exterior is
either coated with a thin layer of oil or infused with slippery silicon.

Because this faucet and I have been around the block a few times during the past 10 years, I had
it back together in short order. And, to my amazement, when I turned it on, I needed little more
than a finger to move it. It glided with an ease we had forgotten. The handle no longer wobbled.
And the faucet didn’t leak.

It still runs hot and cold, but our relationship is repaired, and I’m looking forward to a long
future together.

Alan D. Miller is a Dispatch
managing editor who writes about old-house repair. Send questions to Old House Handyman, The
Dispatch, 34 S. 3rd St., Columbus, OH 43215, or by email. Follow him on Twitter
@youroldhouse.